Think back to when you were in school. I bet you can remember sitting in class, your mind wandering, struggling to pay attention to your teacher. A lot of students were fidgeting around, or tapping their foot to try and keep focus. This was your body’s way of telling you that you need to move! Human beings have not evolved to be sedentary. However, in today’s modern world, our environment does not always require us to be active. We must adapt the environment so that we can be more active, while still fulfilling our responsibilities. Let’s focus on schools for now, and specifically special education. Children with autism and other special needs often go to school, where they engage in some active time, but much of the day is spent being sedentary. There is class time, lunch, which take up a bulk of the day and what are these students doing during these times. They are sitting. Physical education and recess are times when students can be active, but there are no requirements to do so at recess. So, unless your child is receiving physical education each day, a large portion of each week is spent being sedentary. We have more information on the potential dangers of living a sedentary lifestyle than ever before in history, we know that this can attribute to becoming overweight or even obese. Which increases the risks of even more alarming health conditions. But, outside of public health statements and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for minimum physical activity there is no focus on increasing students’ time spent active. There is a distinction between physical activity and exercise, but all exercise can be considered physically active. The most effective means of guaranteeing students with autism and other special needs reach the MINIMUM guidelines for physical activity is through specialized autism exercise instruction. At this point there are simply not enough personal trainers specializing in how to effectively offer autism exercise instruction, to support our special needs student population. This does not mean that other steps can not be taken, movement breaks offer students with autism exercise in short bouts throughout the day. As little as 5 minutes spent engaging in exercise can improve attention, reduce maladaptive and stereotypic behaviors, and help regulate emotions.
Movement breaks are exactly what they sound like. A structured time where children can exercise or be physically active, usually these breaks are 5-10 minutes long. Because of their duration, movement breaks can easily be fit into instruction times. They actually mimic the physical activity patterns of children already. Children typically engage in shorter bouts of physical activity across the day. So, these types of breaks accommodate the physical tendencies of those they are designed for. Let’s say 4 hours of each school day are dedicated to receiving classroom instruction. If the program allowed for one 5-minute movement break each hour, children would be guaranteed at least 20 minutes of physical activity each day. This type of structure is easily adoptable to any program. Sure this is time taken away from a student’s education, but it is not time wasted and it may even lead to more effective instruction time.
Adaptive Exercise offers movement break videos for people with autism and other special needs. Through the use of visual supports, modified language, kinesthetic cues and a slower pace of exercise, we created autism exercise video shorts. These videos are a great tool for students to follow along and get the physical activity their bodies need. Our movement break autism exercise videos cover a variety of different exercises, and through the use of our added supports students are receiving a more appropriate means of instruction. This allows for educators, parents or other paraprofessionals to help prompt them through their exercises. When developing the framework for our movement breaks, we knew that we needed to be able to provide support, that the routines needed to be less than ten minutes duration and that they would consist of functional movements. The length of our movement break videos allow for educators to work them into student’s schedules. Parents can easily find time to incorporate them at home as well. We understand that time is the number one reason for people not engaging in regular exercise. Our short movement breaks make reaching physical activity guidelines more manageable. This are not intended to be the sole means of physical activity, but these short bouts of physical activity can make a real positive impact on the physical and mental health of an individual. By working our movement breaks into your child’s daily routine they are not only reaching exercise and physical activity guidelines, but they are learning how to exercise.
The supports in our movement break autism exercise videos are many of the same added supports our personal trainers use in their direct sessions with clients. Visual supports are used when introducing exercises, to more clearly define the movement. Visuals like arrows, hand and foot markers highlight key movements. Kinesthetic cues are provide students with tactile feedback while performing exercises. These cues may use the environment or even the athletes body. An example of this would be when teaching a hip hinge. The instructor would say “lean forward, touch floor” this sets a concrete expectation for the movement. The athlete knows to touch the floor at the end of the downward phase of the movement. Another type of support we utilize in our movement break videos is modified language. We understand that complex verbal instruction may be overwhelming or difficult to follow for some people with special needs. Modified language means we use only essential language in mands consisting of 5 words or less. When this mands are paired with the instructor physically modeling the exercise, it give a clear explanation. The final support we use to provide the most apporiate video exercise instruction for people with special needs is a slower pace of exercise. Many exercise videos target improved fitness as the primary goal. These videos may be fast paced and challenging to follow for beginners. Our goal is that student engage in exercises accurately, so we slow down the pace to support our athletes.